Day in, day out we see more fines being issued by the United Kingdom Gambling Commission (UKGC). It’s being reported today, Betfred.com is the latest to receive the wrath of the UKGC with a £2.9m fine issued after an investigation revealed Betfred’s Gibraltar-based subsidiary Petfre Limited failed grossly on social responsibility and AML policy.
Inadequate Controls
The operator is accused of inadequate control over customers depositing large sums of money before any interactions took place. Between October 2019 and December 2020, interaction triggers were too high and one customer lost £70,000 over a ten-hour period the day after opening a new account. Moreover, if a customer had flagged the interaction trigger, no further interaction was taken thereafter. One customer only had one interaction in a four-month period, they deposited £320,000 and lost £69,000. The investigation found inadequate policies, controls, and procedures were not in place to mitigate money laundering and terrorist financing (MLTF). Petfre had insufficient information on its customers prior to interaction triggers being met. Petfre’s failings have seen the UKGC issue a warning to Betfred’s UK license. Leanne Oxley, director of UKGC said, “This is a further example of us taking action to investigate and sanction alarming failures. “We expect this gambling business and all other licensees to review this case and look closely to see if they need to make further improvements to demonstrate active compliance. Where standards do not improve, tougher enforcement will follow.” 
Inadequate Staff Training
The investigation found the operator had supplied inadequate training to its staff who had not scrutinized large deposits based on the customer profile and risk policy. Also, failure to conduct sufficient AML and customer source fund checks, although the investigation concluded there was no evidence of criminal spending.